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DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s electoral commission said on Saturday that 95 percent of registered expatriate voters took part in a presidential election expected to return incumbent Bashar Assad to power, state media said.

While Syrians living areas controlled by government forces will vote on June 3, Syrians living abroad cast their ballots last Wednesday.

“The president of the foreign ministry’s central electoral committee said that voting took place in 43 embassies of the Syrian Arab Republic, and the participation rate by registered voters had exceeded 95 percent,” state news agency SANA said.

The opposition and its backers have slammed the vote as a “farce” and as a “parody of democracy.”

Inside Syria, voting will only take place in regime-held areas. Swathes of the country have fallen out of government control since the outbreak of an uprising against Assad in March 2011.

Those who fled the country’s violence through unofficial border crossings were not allowed to participate.

Refugees in Lebanon and Turkey who oppose the Assad regime have protested against the vote, which dissidents see as little more than a show of force by Damascus.

Damascus has said its nationals in countries that back the opposition, including the United Arab Emirates and France, were preventing people from voting.